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NEWS: Japan's Video Game Rankings, October 4-10




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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1105
PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:52 am Reply with quote
Those numbers for Metroid Dread are really impressive considering that the series has never been a huge seller in Japan, just for comparison the highest opening for a Metroid game in Japan was Fusion at 49k almost 20 years ago. I think Nintendo did a good job marketing the game, just hope it has good legs worldwide.
The Switch OLED sales are pretty good too, though the new 3DS sold double the units in its debut, however it seems that Nintendo has stock problems due to a lack manufacture components, something that has also affected the production of the PS5 and Xbox Series. Still, with all versions combined the Switch is going to pass the PS2 sales in Japan next week.
The Xbox Series X and S combined sales are now at 100k units in Japan. that doesn't seem like much considering the Switch OLED managed to do it in just a week, but it's kind of amazing for the Xbox in Japan.
Next week is going to be interesting, Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles is already out and seeing how popular the series is and how many records it breaks the videogame might debut at more than a hundred thousand.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:59 am Reply with quote
Silver Kirin wrote:
Those numbers for Metroid Dread are really impressive considering that the series has never been a huge seller in Japan.

The original Famicom game sold over a million in Japan, so I'd change that "never" to "almost never".
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1105
PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:20 am Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
Silver Kirin wrote:
Those numbers for Metroid Dread are really impressive considering that the series has never been a huge seller in Japan.

The original Famicom game sold over a million in Japan, so I'd change that "never" to "almost never".

Yeah, I now that the original Metroid sold that number but that was 35 years ago on the Famicom Disk System when the series was brand new and Nintendo had almost no competitors in the Japanese market. The Japanese sales for Super Metroid aren't very clear, some said it sold a total of 750k, and during Terry's presentation for Smash Ultimate Sakurai said that some players in Japan didn't know who Samus was when she appeared in Smash 64 so perhaps Metroid's popularity vanished very quickly there.
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1168
PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:34 am Reply with quote
Silver Kirin wrote:
The Japanese sales for Super Metroid aren't very clear, some said it sold a total of 750k, and during Terry's presentation for Smash Ultimate Sakurai said that some players in Japan didn't know who Samus was when she appeared in Smash 64 so perhaps Metroid's popularity vanished very quickly there.

To be fair. among everyone I was around at the time of Smash 64, I was the only one who knew who Samus was, in America...

I think the years have been kind to the Metroid franchise. Certainly doesn't hurt that now many other games are part of a genre that literally has "Metroid" used to describe it.
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1105
PostPosted: Sat Oct 16, 2021 12:29 pm Reply with quote
Kicksville wrote:
I think the years have been kind to the Metroid franchise. Certainly doesn't hurt that now many other games are part of a genre that literally has "Metroid" used to describe it.

WelI, Metroid and Samus are pretty recognizable these days, Nintendo still gives the series tons of spotlight in other games like Smash Bros. but that popularity doesn't reflect in sales, I just hope that Dread and Prime 4 can elevate Metroid. I don't like the term Metroidvania, I think it makes the games which take inspiration from both series look like copies, kind of like when FPSs were referred as Doom Clones, I prefer the term Search-Action which is what they use in Japan to refer to those type of games.
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